Water is the primeval soup of life . In fact, life originated in Earth’s oceans and evolved into complex creatures over millions of years under its waters, until conditions were right for plant and animal life to settle on land. Now, a team of researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) has created a statistical model to predict the proportion of land and oceans that would exist on other habitable planets in the universe.
Most habitable planets would be 90% covered by water, according to the estimate of Fergus Simpson, author of the study, using Bayesian probability, – a statistical model that works with hypotheses that are taken as true or uncertain. For a planet to have extensive areas of land and water , there must be a delicate balance between the volume of water it contains and the dimensions of its ocean basins . The amount of water on Earth is in a perfect balance compatible with the existence of terrestrial life : currently, the oceans cover 71% of the surface of our planet , a percentage less than the approximate for other habitable planets, and ” close to the limit where the existence of our species would no longer be viable, “according to Simpson.
The conclusion of the study is based on the principle of anthropic selection , that is, the one that defends that any theory about the universe is valid as long as it is consistent with the existence of the human being, In addition, observations such as the water cycle and the processes of erosion and deposition have been taken into account for the realization of this approach.
According to this theory, it is very likely that extraterrestrial life happens, mostly, under the oceans of planets in other stars. Despite the fact that life on Earth originated in this way, according to the ICCUB researcher, ” we should not limit ourselves to believing that all habitable planets have the same capacity to host intelligent life.”
References:
Simpson, F. (2017). Bayesian evidence for the prevalence of waterworlds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1093.
